Posts tagged ‘brass cast’

We had posted about setting up a TV studio in your basement ala Leo Laporte a few months back and it has received a few hits from folks out there. This past weekend we brought our setup online and broadcast/webcast our first live show for Radio Free Red Deer – independent music from the heart of Alberta.

Vidblaster needs a more powerful computer than what we ran it on. It’s a great piece of software but it does get finicky. A quad-core PC or better running in a clean environment (no background processes) would improve the performance. We had a problem with video/audio sync which is directly related to the hardware according to Vidblaster’s support forums. For our next show we will connect directly to Ustream.tv and that should align the audio and video.

Be prepared for anything…equipment failure, mis-cues, etc. After all it’s live and anything can happen.

It’s more fun if you have others to share the workload – and the fun! Multi-tasking can get hectic.

TV (and any video for that matter) is more than audio with pictures. It needs to be visually appealing so lots of graphics and even full motion visuals add to the viewer experience. Watching some guy talk into a mic can get boring. Since this show is all about music I think we can get away with an emphasis on the audio with less visual content.

What’s next . . .

We would like to go on locations and broadcast live bands performing at some of the venues in the area. Once we work out some of the syncing problems this will be our next step.

Broadcasting live events other than music is something else we would like to do. The key requirement is availability of internet bandwidth. Without some form of reliable and consistent high-speed connection live video fails.

We’ll keep you updated on our progress. If you’re out there doing this type of live video via the web, let us know and we’ll feature your show and share your work.

What I really like about a blog versus a static web site is the fact that I can update it on the fly. I write my posts in the morning while checking email and having my coffee, during the day as things occur or in the evening after reflecting on the days events. The BRASScast podcast takes a little more planning and production.

With the last BRASScast we re-purposed a BRASSmedia blog post . . . I don’t listen to radio anymore. We plan to do that more often – particularly with the longer blog posts. Why? As another method of getting the message out there. Reading a blog has it’s benefits and so does listening to an audio podcast. Remember my PDF casts? Our new strategy is to publish a single message through as much media as possible.

Here are the formats we recommend to clients:

blog posts – the source of the main message;

audio podcast- an audio reading of the blog post;

video podcast- using the audio podcast and adding images…powerpoint presentation or photos for example;

PDF cast- converting the original blog post into an Adobe PDF document;

DVD cast- compiling video podcasts onto DVD and giving these out to prospects and anyone curious to know more;

eMail cast - Feedburner offers a feed through email instead of RSS (I use this for one of my other blogs).

Why? It’s all about choices. My advice to clients is to get the message out there in as many forms as your customers use to gather their news and information. There are a lot of choices in the world of Web 2.0. Since digital media is low cost and immediate a single message can be published in many different forms to reach people in a way they choose.

What else?

different languages…if your customers use English as a second language, consider hiring someone to translate your blogs and podcasts into their language. This customization will extend your reach. In Canada we have two official languages – French and English but the people who are part of our communities have diverse culture and languages. Don’t forget to include them in your marketing mix.

format for phones…SMS, texting, twitter are another way people are keeping connected on the go. Reformatting your message to accommodate these tools should be part of the deployment plan.

There’s more but I’ve finished my morning coffee and it’s time to get to work on other things . . .

This IT World Canada article on corporate podcasting uses the micro brewery industry as an example of publishing an audio or video podcast to reach people who are interested in a niche product.

A few of the key points in this article are:

inhouse vs. outsource production?…although podcasting software and hardware range from free to inexpensive, do you have the time to do it? And to do it right?

By outsourcing, you will have a resource dedicated to producing your podcast and making certain that it is published on a regular basis, produced to an acceptable level of quality and tied into your other martketing initiatives;

owned by IT or marketing?… the answer in this article is a good one – content is owned by marketing and the technical elements are managed and supported by IT. A co-operative effort;

This relates to both performance and costs. Consider increasing your bandwidth availablity for a period of time when the podcast is published. This is when your server will get the most traffic as the episode is downloaded;

promoting your podcast… the field of dreams syndrome (build it and they will come) will not work here;

You need to promote your podcast through the following methods: listings in podcast directories (e.g. iTunes, Canada Podcast Directory, etc), promotion of the podcast with your other marketing initiatives, missionary work to help your customers understand what podcasts are and assisting them on how to access your podcast.

A personal blog and podcast is different from a corporate effort not just in content and audience, but in: